"Rose Covered Glasses" is a serious essay, satire and photo-poetry commentary from a group of US Military Veterans in Minnesota.
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Tuesday, January 30, 2018

(Glad I Did Not Take the Job) Destroyer Still Doesn’t Have A Round For Its Gun

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

EDITOR’S NOTE:

In 2008 at the tail end of a 36 year career in Aerospace and Defense I was offered a job in the procurement by BAE from Lockheed Martin of the long-range land attack projectile, or LRLAP, a round designed to be fired from the Zumwalt Stealth Destroyer’s massive 155mm Advanced Gun Systems weapon that BAE produced.

I turned the job down and retired. Now 10 years later the LRLAP, at $ 800,000 a round has been cancelled and the Zumwalt Stealth Destroyer is still without a round for its big gun as it heads for Initial Operating Capability (?).

I am truly grateful I did not become a part of this debacle.

Ken Larson

MILITARY.COM”

“In late 2016, the service canceled plans to buy the long-range land attack projectile, or LRLAP, a round designed to be fired from the ship’s massive 155mm Advanced Gun Systems weapon.

At about $800,000 per round, the ammo was just too pricey to load up on the three ships in the limited Zumwalt large destroyer class.”

“But it’s now 2018, and the ship is expected to reach initial operational capability by fiscal 2020. And there’s still no substitute round for the AGS.

In a briefing at the Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium, Capt. Kevin Smith, Major Program Manager for the DDG-1000 [Zumwalt] Program Office, said the Navy continues to monitor future technologies and watch industry for a solution.

“The threat’s always changing out here and the requirements that the U.S. Navy’s looking at, as I said, this is a multi-mission ship,” Smith said. “There’s lots of things this ship can do but, right now, we’re going to be looking hard at what is the best technology to meet the requirements for the gun.”

Each of the destroyers costs roughly $4 billion. The USS Zumwalt, the first in class, was commissioned in late 2016; its successor, the Michael Monsoor, is expected to be delivered to the Navy in March. The final ship, the Lyndon B. Johnson, is set for delivery by 2020.

Capt. James Kirk, the first commanding officer of the Zumwalt, indicated that the designated purpose of the ship itself might be affected by its lack of a working mega-weapon.

“We’re going to be looking at shifting the mission set for this ship to a surface strike, land-and -sea-strike surface platform,” he said. “We’re predecisional on budget … but that’s what the focus is going to be, on a long-range surface strike platform, in contrast with previous focus on a littoral volume suppressive fires, in close to land.”

The AGS is designed to deliver a high rate of fire, as well as precision strikes.

As it stands, the Zumwalt is not without weapons: It’s built to carry RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow missiles; Tactical Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles; Vertical Launch Anti-Submarine Missiles; and two MK-46 30mm chain guns.

Officials have discussed the possibility of arming the AGS with a hypervelocity projectile, such as the one the Navy is currently testing out with its futuristic railgun prototype, but a decision on whether to move forward has yet to be made.

“We’re monitoring that technical maturation to see do we get that to get the kind of ranges and capabilities that we want, what’s the right kind of bang for the buck in cost and capability for the Navy,” Kirk said. “We’re monitoring that, but we have not made a decision on that.”

"Odyssey of Armaments" is a free download in Adobe format from the "Box" in the right margin of this site.

As we observe the current U.S. Defense Budget consuming enormous amounts of our available government funding and continuing in excess of $700 Billion annually, this book details how the industry Eisenhower warned us about has become out of control.

A first person account by a Bronze Star decorated Vietnam Veteran who, after combat service, undertook a 36-year career in the US Military Industrial Complex (MIC) working on 25 large scale weapons systems in 12 corporations, including sales to 16 foreign countries. These systems are in use today in the Middle East and throughout the world.

The book details the inside workings of the Military Industrial Complex among the armed service procurement offices and the mirror image corporations selling to them from Vietnam to Iraq.

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About Me

2 Tours in US Army Vietnam.
Retired from 36 Years in the Defense Industrial Complex after working on 25 major weapons systems, many of which are in use today in the Middle East.
Volunteer MicroMentor. I specialize in Small, Veteran-owned, Minority-Owned and Woman-Owned Businesses beginning work for the Federal Government.
MicroMentor is a non-profit organization offering free assistance to small business in business planning, operations, marketing and other aspects of starting and successfully operating a small enterprise.
You can set up a case with me at MicroMentor by going to:
http://www.micromentor.org/
key words: "Federal Government Contracting"

The Colors of Hastings

EXPRESSION OF GRATITUDE

My gratitude to the person or persons who sent to me a new Sony Cybershot DSC-H90 Camera.There was no return address or acknowledgment of the kindness, other than a one sentence, typewritten note that read:

"For all that you do for others"

I am very grateful and will put the marvelous precision instrument to good use - Ken